NEW YORK—What we learned while Friday afternoon watching fifth-seeded Butler knock off fourth-seeded La Salle, 69-58, in the quarterfinals of the Atlantic 10 Tournament at the Barclays Center in Brooklyn:

Woods can be a March hero

In coach Brad Stevens’ tenure at Butler, a common theme to the Bulldogs’ success, especially in the NCAA Tournament, has been production off the bench from somewhat unexpected sources. Kameron Woods, a 6-9 sophomore forward from Louisville, is next in line.

Though, if he keeps playing like this, Woods might not be coming off the bench much longer. He already has started five games this year, though none recently. Woods had 17 points on 7-of-11 shooting from the field on the road at UMass on March 7—a game the Minutemen had to win—and then 15 points in the regular-season finale against Xavier.

“He’s really stepped his game up these last couple weeks,” Butler senior guard Rotnei Clarke said. “It starts in practice. He works so hard in practice. He’s an extra spark for us when he comes in. He’s all over the boards; he makes all the energy plays, the effort plays. He’s especially good on the offensive glass.

“He’s gotten a lot of put-backs and some and-ones these last couple weeks. He’s been huge for us.”

Woods continued his strong play against La Salle. Granted, the Explorers are a guard-heavy team that has trouble with big men, but Woods’ athleticism made handling him extra difficult. He soared in for defensive rebounds, fought for offensive rebounds and put-backs and even knocked down baseline jumpers.

“This game, I just tried to be relentless,” Woods said. “A smaller guy was on my pretty much the whole game. Whether it be slipping a ball screen or trying to post, my main thing was always trying to attack the ball.”

Woods had six of his 10 points in the second half—and all nine of his rebounds—as the Bulldogs extended their two-point halftime advantage to double digits. He’s still raw, but he’s capable of making the type of plays that will have NCAA Tournament announcers screaming, “How did this kid only average 4.2 points in the regular season?”

La Salle won’t be an easy NCAA out

The Explorers’ NCAA Tournament resume is such that the next few days will be spent chewing fingernails and finding things to think about that don’t involve the words “selection committee” or “at-large bid” or, especially, “bubble.”

“For the record, I’m going to make myself go nuts,” La Salle coach Dr. John Giannini said in his postgame press conference, about the wait until Selection Sunday.

La Salle’s RPI is a solid 38 and the 21-9 record looks nice—as does an 11-5 mark in A-10 play—but the rest of the resume is thin. The Explorers’ best two wins (Butler, at VCU) came in the same week, and their only non-conference win against an RPI top 95 team is against Villanova. They only have a total of six top 100 wins, and then there’s that resume-staining loss to Central Connecticut State, which has an RPI of 198.

But should La Salle get one of those precious 37 at-large bids—which is very possible, considering how other bubble teams have struggled this week—the Explorers will present a special strategy problem for their opponent.

“I certainly hope that they end up in the NCAA Tournament, because they’ll be a hard matchup,” Stevens said.

They start four guards—D.J. Peterson, Tyreek Duren, Sam Mills and Ramon Galloway—who are all capable of big games. For example, Galloway was named to the A-10 first team, but it was Duren and Tyrone Garland—yet another guard who comes off the bench—who had big games Friday against Butler. Duren had 16 points and Garland had a team-high 17, including a 3-of-5 showing from the 3-point line.

“They’re a hard team to play against,” Stevens said. “It’s hard to guard those guys, the way they drive it so well.”

Stevens can get mad

The eternally calm, even-tempered Butler coach was hit with a technical foul in the first half of Friday’s game. Upset with a call or two, Stevens went so far as to give a dismissive wave after one call and then said something that prompted the technical foul.

Even that “outburst” seemed a bit calculated, though. It wasn’t like he was flying off the handle, unable to control his emotions. He wanted to make a point with the officials—and probably his team—and he accomplished that in a game his Bulldogs won.